Meet the Designer – Frayed Ally – PAX AUS 2025

For me, PAX this year was catching up with indie boardgame designers and talking about their games, what they made, why they made them, and how you can get your hands on them.

One of the standout moments was chatting with Jesse from Button Fox Games about Frayed Ally, his freshly launched tabletop title. It’s a Battle Royale party game that blends deception, strategy, and the kind of chaotic misfortune that turns friends into frenemies in a single round. Think bluffing meets backstabbing, with just enough randomness to keep everyone on edge.

We talked about the game’s origins, the design choices behind its unpredictable mechanics, and what it’s like to bring a new indie title to life in the whirlwind of PAX. Here’s our conversation.

Ben: As a party game, how many players is Frayed Ally? 

Jesse: It’s designed to be 2 to 8 players. Ideally, we would recommend 4 to 6 for the most optimal gameplay. You can play with just 2 people if you want to. You just don’t get that deception sort of certain elements you kind of miss a little bit, but it’s still like a lot of chaotic funds, yeah. 

Oh, awesome. I see the artwork is sort of cute-ish, almost anime. Was that a design choice?

Yeah, it’s sort of cute / chaos, it’s what I fall back on. They’re like little cute characters, but they’re battling to the death. There are rivals, there are villains, and there are minions. So the rivals, they fight for glory. They’re not really heroes. They’re sort of just competing to be at the top of the food chain. Whereas the villain and the minions just want to kill everyone. They just want to deliver as much havoc as possible. The whole idea is they’re going back and forth and see who finishes on top.

You have obviously published the game (it launched on the Friday of PAX, 10 October), but how long have you been in development? 

It sounds like a long time, but I’ve been working on it for 8 years on and off. Maybe some years, a couple of weeks, a couple of days. But then, in the most recent years, as it was getting closer to being done. I started to dedicate more time, and I saw this eventually finished. 

You were the sole designer of the game? 

We’re a team of three. I’m the designer and the concept artist. We have another team member who’s the artist, and then my partner, who does a lot of the play testing. She came up with a couple of ideas and focused on the manufacturing side. 

Oh, cool, yeah. And you’ve gone to full self-publishing? 

Yeah, we’ve self-published it. I’m not sure if it’s the best way to do it, but we’re new to this sort of area. It’s sort of like a passion thing rather than, that’s all we do. So we didn’t really know the right path to take. So we just self-published. I think it works because we like making stuff ourselves for a long time, and this is just a different sort of side quest. 

Is your background in design and manufacturing? 

Yeah, so our background is actually clothing, manufacturing and design. The game has a lot of those elements within it. All the characters are wearing stuff that we’ve made in the past. 

The whole idea is you’re a Frayed Ally. It’s got a bit of a pun in the terminology. The idea is you’re together, you’re allies. And slowly you’re getting frayed, and then to become enemies. You’ll find a lot of those elements hidden away in the game. 

The artwork looks really good. The colours are very poppy, very appealing. Is the age range for the younger audience?

I was trying to aim for a bit of everyone. The age range is 14 plus. I have kids at home, and my 5-year-old can play it. You can pretty much play from young to old. We have had a lot of playtesting all through the weekend, in fact. There hasn’t been anyone who hasn’t liked it, from 8-year-olds to 30 and 40-year-olds. Everyone has enjoyed it, which is great. 

It’s a bit of fun for everyone. 

There’s a big crowd here at Pax today, and it’s awesome to see all these people coming and trying these games. I know you’re part of Pax Rising. How was that experience coming into that to actually be here and present your game? 

Pax Rising has been great. Last year, we won the Indie Showcase, and that was at a point where we were just still developing the game. Now that it’s released, we released it on the Friday of Pax. We’ve been able to run playtests and just sell the game on the day, which has been amazing. Getting direct feedback for all our hard work. You can buy it now. We’ve got it in a few stores. 

We had a Kickstarter for the game originally. People have been picking up their game, and then we had 3 orders, people coming in to see that and then just new players too. There’s been a mixture of people as well. 

Can you tell our readers where to find you? You’ve got a website?

Our website is buttonfox.com, where you will find a mixture of our original clothing items and our game elements. We have a lot of fun projects. We hope to work on, too, in regard to the game, to kind of blend those two worlds together. I have a graphic novel in the works, and I kind of developed the story further. 

Awesome. Thanks for your time. 

You’re welcome. Thank you.

Frayed Ally: Allies Unravel

Frayed Ally: Allies Unravel in the Fray of Battle is a party card game that throws players into the chaotic, untamed streets of Sewer City for a battle of deduction, strategy, and a dash of unfortunate luck. Designed for 4–6 players with a quick playtime of 15 minutes, this game seems tailored for groups looking for a fast-paced, high-energy brawl.

The core gameplay loop is straightforward: players attack rivals and strategically use action cards from their hands. This simplicity suggests a low barrier to entry, making it easy to teach and get to the table. The action takes place in Sewer City, a fierce battle royale where “anthropomorphic animals” battle it out—a setting that promises colourful, personality-driven characters, which are visible in the game’s vibrant art style.

The biggest hook lies in the game’s unique features, which elevate it beyond a simple combat card game:

• Deduction and Mystery: The Player’s true identity is only revealed when they are hit with 1 health point remaining. This adds a critical layer of hidden information and tension, forcing players to deduce who their opponents truly are while trying to stay alive.
• Variable Win Conditions: The “3 Paths to Victory” feature ensures high replayability and shifting goals. Since the path to victory changes randomly each game, players must constantly adapt their strategy, keeping the gameplay dynamic and fresh.
• Character Uniqueness: Each player dons the cloak of a random crafty character, each with their own unique play style, and possesses a “Special Ability” that can turn the tide of battle. This ensures asymmetrical gameplay and offers players a strategic element in leveraging their character’s strengths at the perfect moment.
• Player Interaction: The game is clearly built for direct conflict, with players wielding action cards and sending skull tokens flying to incapacitate rivals. The inclusion of “Trap Actions” further ramps up the interaction, adding health-draining threats hidden throughout the deck that can be triggered by careless card usage.

In essence, Frayed Ally looks like a blend of fast-action brawling and strategic social deduction. The pull quote describes it as “fast, frantic fun… at Uno-like speed and intensity.” This comparison is a strong indicator of its appeal: a quick-moving party game with enough strategic depth (deduction, abilities, variable wins) to satisfy players who enjoy out manoeuvring their opponents.

Frayed Ally promises a high-octane, chaotic, and strategically layered party card game. It appears to successfully combine simple combat mechanics with compelling elements of hidden roles and variable goals. For players seeking a quick, vibrant, and highly interactive game night centrepiece, this battle in the sewer streets looks like a promising hit.

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